Author ArchivesTom Polansek

Reuters – U.S. farmers are feeding their livestock everything from outdated pet food and leftover bakery rolls to crops imported from South America after unprecedented spring planting delays boosted prices for locally grown corn. Agricultural co-operatives, equipment dealers and plants that process corn into ethanol have already been strained because farmers were unable to plant […] Read more

Farmers worldwide are feeling the pinch as fuel costs rise to near four-year highs just as they plant and harvest their fields, eroding agricultural income already hamstrung by depressed crop prices. The agricultural sector from the United States to Russia, and Brazil to Europe, is seeing profits harmed by the rise in diesel prices. The […] Read more

Monsanto is facing major threats to its historic dominance of seed and herbicide technology for the US$40-billion U.S. soybean market. Rivals BASF and DowDuPont are preparing to push their own varieties of genetically modified soybeans. At stake is control over seed supply for the next generation of farmers producing the most valuable U.S. agricultural export. […] Read more

Supplies of chicken raised without antibiotics are outstripping demand, a major U.S. poultry producer said Jan. 16, a sign of overproduction that could eat into processors’ profits. Large chicken and restaurant companies, including Tyson Foods and McDonald’s, have raced to cut antibiotics from poultry supplies as public health experts have warned about the link between […] Read more

Half of U.S. soybeans exported to China this year would not meet Chinese rules for routine delivery in 2018, according to shipping data reviewed by Reuters, signalling new hurdles in the US$14-billion-a-year business. More stringent quality rules, which took effect on Jan. 1, could require additional processing of the U.S. oilseeds at Chinese ports to […] Read more

America’s worst traffic jam this fall occurred on the Ohio River, where a line of about 50 miles of boats hauling grains and other products turned into a water-borne parking lot, as ship captains waited for the river to reopen. Such delays are worsening on the nation’s waterways, which are critical to commerce for the […] Read more

U.S. regulators under the new presidential administration have instituted a freeze on rules key to the country’s Farm Belt, agricultural groups said Jan. 26, heightening uncertainty for some of the regions that helped propel Donald Trump into office. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will delay implementation of this year’s biofuels requirements along with 29 other regulations […] Read more

The U.S. Department of Agriculture proposed rules Dec. 14 it said will help protect chicken producers from mistreatment by the small group of meat companies that control most of the country’s production. With only a few weeks left to the Obama administration, the agency clarified that individual farmers who feel they have been treated unfairly do […] Read more

In the realm of avian research, the chicks with the glow-in-the-dark beaks and feet might one day rock the poultry world. British scientists say they have genetically modified chickens in a bid to block bird flu and that early experiments show promise for fighting off the disease that has devastated the U.S. poultry and egg […] Read more

With corn supplies at a 17-year low and harvest delayed, ethanol producers are outbidding southern corn buyers and sending a fleet of barges northward

Reuters / The long reach of last summer’s U.S. drought has reversed the flow of the mighty Mississippi River — for corn, at least. In a rare move, corn-laden barges are heading north to Midwest ethanol plants from southern farms. Although a record harvest is expected this year, much of it will be late and, […] Read more